YouTube's Captions Insert Explicit Language in Kids' Videos

Some videos posted on Ryan’s World, a top kids’ channel with more than 30 million subscribers, illustrate the problem. In one, the phrase “You should also buy corn” is rendered in captions as “you should also buy porn.” In other videos, a “beach towel” is transcribed as a “bitch towel,” “buster” becomes “bastard,” a “crab” becomes a “crap,” and a craft video on making a monster-themed dollhouse features a “bed for penis.” Screenshot: Ryan's World via WIRED Staff “It’s startling and disturbing,” says Ashique KhudaBukhsh, an assistant professor at Rochester Institute of Technology who researched the problem with collaborators Krithika Ramesh and Sumeet Kumar at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad. KhudaBukhsh hopes the study will draw attention to a phenomenon that he says has gotten little notice from tech companies and researchers and that he dubs “inappropriate content hallucination”—when algorithms add unsuitable material not present in the original content. “The benefits of speech-to-text are undeniable, but there are blind spots in these systems that can require checks and balances.” Ashique KhudaBukhsh, assistant professor, Rochester Institute of Technology YouTube spokesperson Jessica Gibby says children under 13 are recommended to use YouTube Kids, where automated captions cannot be seen. “The benefits of speech-to-text are undeniable, but there are blind spots in these systems that can require checks and balances,” KhudaBukhsh says.